


Betrayer Betrayed

by Miraculous Mumma (Andromedanewton)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal, Lila is a bitch, betrayed, inspired by @geekgirles on tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2020-07-08 16:44:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19872799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andromedanewton/pseuds/Miraculous%20Mumma
Summary: When Lila reveals Marinette's identity to their class, Adrien encourages her to stand up for herself.





	Betrayer Betrayed

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all!
> 
> You might have seen this on tumblr, I posted it yesterday, inspired by a wonderful post by geekgirles! You can find it here!  
> https://geekgirles.tumblr.com/post/186353051604/ive-seen-many-fans-comment-on-how-lila-finding  
> Go and give lots of love because this truly inspired me to write! Anyway, without further ado...

Lila’s betrayal

‘I’m so glad you could all meet me here.’Lila gushed as she looked at her entire class.She had asked them all to meet her in the auditorium after school, and Marinette couldn’t help be suspicious.Lila never did anything without a reason and it was never good.‘I have something so important to tell you, and I hope you’re not mad at me, because it was all her idea.’

‘What’s she up to now?’Marinette muttered to herself as she took a seat at the back beside Alya.

‘Who knows, but maybe she’s talking about Ladybug?They are best friends.’

‘Yeah, right.’Marinette’s reply was drowned out by Lila’s next sentence, opening a laptop connected to the projector screen behind her on the stage.

‘This is just between us, you understand.’Lila continued as she checked the screen was mirrored correctly.‘But she wouldn’t tell you herself.’

Marinette narrowed her eyes as the screen flickered onto one of the many Parisian alleyways, the camera shakily panning upwards to show the rooftops, through which she saw her alter-ego drop.

‘Oh shit.’Marinette spat, quickly getting to her feet and making her way sideways past her friend and chairs, yelling as she reached the aisle.‘Lila, don’t!’

But it was too late, and the smirk on Lila’s face showed Marinette she knew that.Zooming in on the big screen she watched her transformation drop away, revealing her true identity.

The room fell silent as one by one her classmates turned to her, their expressions ranging from shock and awe to absolute disbelief.

Marinette felt sick, her cheeks flushed red and her stomach turned.Her mind told her to run while her legs refused to comply, but the main thing keeping her in place were the bright green eyes of Adrien Agreste, looking at her from the front row in amazement.

‘Marinette?’He said quietly, his voice echoing in the silence.

‘This has to be some kind of a joke.’Chloé scoffed.‘There’s no way…’

‘You’ve seen the evidence yourself.’Lila preened.‘And the reason she’s always shown me animosity at school is because if she and I were too close it would have put me in terrible danger.’

Marinette’s legs finally got word of her desire to leave and they took her quickly to the rear exit as the rest of the class broke into rapid chatter, all speaking at once about what they had just discovered.

Alya got to her feet but Adrien rushed past her, sparing a glance as he went.‘I’ve got it.’Alya nodded marginally as Nino took the seat beside her.

Adrien paused in the corridor long enough to take stock of where Marinette had gone, the banging of lockers loud in the quiet school, and he headed towards it.He peeked through the door and, sure enough, there was Marinette, and he watched helplessly as she banged her fists against the side of the lockers before dropping her forehead against it and sliding to the floor as she sobbed.

Adrien sighed softly before closing the door behind him as silently as he was able.Sure, it was a shock that his shy classmate was his partner in crime-fighting, but not a surprise.How he had never seen it, he wasn’t sure, but he could worry about that later.Right now, his lady needed him.Crouching beside her, he carefully rested his hand between her shoulder blades, both letting her know he was there and encouraging her towards him at the same time.

‘Hey, Marinette, it’s okay.’

She looked at him but her bluebell eyes were sadder than he had ever seen them.She quickly averted them, the movement making her tears spill from her cheeks onto her knees as she refused to move despite his efforts.‘Just leave me alone, Adrien.’She whispered, her voice husky and full of the emotions this reveal had wrought.‘Go back to the auditorium and…and…I don’t know.’

‘I don’t think I will.’He turned himself to sit against the locker facing her, drawing up his knees and resting his arms on them.‘I figure now’s the time you really need a friend.And I’m it.’

‘No one was meant to find out.’She said under her breath, Adrien barely hearing.‘Not like this.Especially not you.’

‘Actually, especially me.’

She finally looked up at him, sniffing inelegantly.‘What do you mean?’

‘Here.’He leant forward and pulled her to him, giving her no chance to argue, but was pleasantly surprised when she didn’t resist and curved herself into him, her cheek resting on his shoulder as he held her close.‘That’s not so bad, right?’

‘Not so bad.’She murmured in reply.Of course now Adrien wants to hug her, he’s just found out she’s Ladybug.Who would pass up that chance.

‘Good.’He rested his cheek on her hair and sighed.‘It’s really not that bad a thing that Lila outed you, you know.’

‘Not a bad thing?’She choked on the words.‘They’re called secret identities for a reason, Adrien.’

‘But no one in our class is about to tell, other than Lila, and I think you could shut her down with a few small sentences.’

‘But, Chloé…’

‘Chloé’s your biggest fan.Maybe not Marinette’s, but Ladybug’s.Sure, she can be a bitch, but she’s loyal to you.’

‘I guess.’Marinette wiped at her face with her sleeve.

‘You can bet on it.’He squeezed her gently, hoping to reassure her.‘You’ve got Chloé on your side, Alya, and Nino…and me.’

‘I think it’s just you.’She sighed, her breath trembling through her parted lips.‘Alya seems to believe every lie Lila tells, Nino doesn’t argue with Alya.After this no one in the class will trust me again.’

‘See, that’s where you’re wrong.You’re the one person they always believe in and that, well that gives you the power to stop Lila in her tracks.She doesn’t seem to realise what she’s done by letting your secret out like that.’

Marinette thought for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip as she did so.‘You know, you’re right.’She said quietly.‘This actually gives me the chance to shut down Lila once and for all.And that has to be a good thing, right?’

‘Right.’He replied.‘No one benefits from them other than her.This way everyone wins.’

‘Except Lila.’

‘Except Lila.’He agreed.

Marinette sighed.‘How are you so reasonable?You just found out I’ve been lying to you all this time.’

‘With a purr-fectly good reason, my lady.’

It took a moment for what he said to truly sink in with Marinette, then another moment for her to realise what it meant.Adrien could tell when it hit her, honestly it took longer than he thought it would, as her body went tense and she sat up.

‘Chaton?’The word was a whisper, from the face he loved, and her cheeks flushed further as the realisation took her.

‘In the flesh.Rather than the cat suit, you know?’He quirked her a smile that she would recognise anywhere.

‘That shit eating grin of yours is going to get you skinned one day, minou.’

‘Is today that day?’He asked worriedly.

‘No.’She grinned widely and threw herself at him, leaning into him fully as she hugged him close.

Adrien didn’t answer, instead he just held her tightly, unable to believe that she was right by his side all this time.

Several minutes later, Marinette felt composed enough to be able to sit back, wiping the tear tracks off her face before carefully studying her classmate beside her.‘Adrien Agreste is Chat Noir.’She said quietly as though trying to drum it into her own head.

‘Yeah.And Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Ladybug.’She nodded her reply.‘So, what do you want to do about Lila?’

Marinette looked thoughtful before replying carefully.‘I think it’s time to put a few things straight.’

Minutes later the cacophony of sound from the hall silenced as Adrien walked back in, hand in hand with Marinette.The death stare from Lila was totally worth it, not to mention Chloe’s confused expression as she tried to see her hero in her classmate.Lila had set the video on a loop, playing over and over in the background as she sat with her legs dangling centre stage, having been bragging about how Marinette had entrusted this to her despite her reaction.

Without missing a beat, Marinette walked up to the stage and pulled the plug on the laptop, instead connecting it to her phone, the screen flickering a moment later to reveal a live video call to Jagged Stone.The class were dumbstruck as Marinette turned to face them, the camera facing her for the class to see on the screen.

‘I’m here, Jagged, thanks for taking the time to talk to me.’

‘Anything for you, Little M, you know that.’He winked.‘Now, what did you have that needed my attention so desperately?’

‘This.’Marinette turned the camera to front facing and pointed it at Lila, whose eyes went wide.‘This is Lila.I imagine you remember her.She saved your kitten that one time.’

Jagged laughed heartily.‘Oh, that’s a good one, Little M.You know I’m allergic to cats.’

‘Allergic to cats, really?’Marinette gave Lila a challenging look.‘That’s really interesting.And her?’

‘Never seen her before in my life…although…is she the one who asked me to sign her…what am I saying, I can’t say that in front of a bunch of kids!’He laughed.

‘Right.’She smiled as she turned the camera back to herself.‘Anyway, I’ll speak to you later, I need to make another call.Thanks, Jagged.Say hi to Fang and Penny for me.’

‘Will do.Don’t forget that party I’m throwing on my yacht on Friday night!It wouldn’t be the same without my favourite girl there!’He gave her a quick rock n roll symbol before cutting the call.

‘Anything to say, Lila?’Marinette asked as their classmates looked between one another at the fact that what they had believed all this time was, in fact, a blatant lie.

‘He must have forgotten and I remember now!’Lila stumbled over her words trying to cover her tracks.‘It was Fang I saved, not a kitten!’

‘Fang being a…?’

‘Dog?’Lila said hesitantly.

‘Jagged Stone has an alligator.Everyone knows that.’Chloé flipped her hair, casting Marinette a quick look of approval.She had never liked Lila, the way she had moved in on Adrien.And if Marinette was taking Lila down then Chloé was going to do all she could to make sure it happened.

‘Kind of hard to mistake a dog for an alligator, don’t you think?’Marinette stated.‘Now, I’m quite happy to stand here and contact everyone you’ve ever lied about, everyone else you’ve claimed to be friends with, like Prince Ali; I think he’d be more than happy to take a call from Ladybug; or you can come clean about all the bullshit you’ve been feeding the class for so long.All the times you’ve made some of my oldest and best friends doubt me.All the times you’ve claimed we were best friends while you antagonised me here at school on a daily basis.All the times you claimed to be visiting someone famous.This is your chance to do the right thing.I won’t feel bad for keeping my secret for this long, there’s a reason it’s a secret identity, and if you were truly my best friend you wouldn’t have revealed it to anyone, no matter what the circumstances.’Looking up at the room in general she gave them a small smile.‘I’ll just let you all think about that for a while.’Jumping down from the stage she walked back up the aisle, shoulders back and head held high, Adrien stepping up beside her as she reached him.

Lila couldn’t remember ever being this angry.How dare she?How dare she turn this around on her?Who did she think she was?‘I told you this once before!’Lila yelled as she grabbed the nearest thing to her, a small battery pack from the microphones used during school plays, and throwing it as hard as she could at Marinette’s head.‘I hate you!’

Marinette turned before the battery pack hit her, catching it left handed effortlessly and with a speed that had the rest of the room gasp.‘Nice try.’Marinette quirked her the most confident smile the class had ever seen, which was when reality hit them all.They were truly in the presence of greatness, had been all this time, and had allowed the lies of one deceitful newcomer to taint their view of her.‘I assume I’ll be seeing you soon.’The implication of Marinette’s words weren’t lost on anyone present, knowing Lila’s proclivity for being akumatized, and apparently enjoying it.Dropping the mic pack into the nearest chair, Marinette continued out of the room, Adrien taking her hand again before she even got two steps.

Alya and Nino stood as they reached them, knowing it was Marinette who had chosen them as miraculous holders, knowing they had truly done her a disservice in believing Lila’s lies.When Marinette walked past without even acknowledging them they weren’t surprised, but they were saddened.They both knew that it would take some work to win back her trust.

Marinette let out a heavy breath the moment the doors closed behind them but Adrien didn’t give her a moment to dwell on matters.

‘Come on, Buginette,’ he encouraged her, walking backwards as he tugged on her hand, ‘there’s a whole city of rooftops with our names on them.’

She laughed as she trotted after him, recognising his Chat Noir exuberance while wondering how the two sides of him could be so very different.‘You realise that not only is Lila going to get akumatized but she’s going to tell Hawk Moth who I am?’

‘And you realise that Alya is even now deleting Lila’s footage and making a post on the Ladyblog about how no one should believe the very good editing job going around at the moment?’

‘She is?’

‘I might have asked her to.’Adrien shrugged before pulling her into the nearest alleyway.‘And no one else in class is going to confirm her claims.Not now they know she’s been fooling them all this time.’

‘So, we’re just going to wait and see if she does anything?’

‘Basically.’He shrugged as Plagg flew out of his shirt.

‘Nicely done, pigtails.’He grinned at Marinette as Tikki joined them.‘You sure put her in her place.’

‘And you already have a contingency in case she tries to rat you out to Hawk Moth.’Tikki nodded her thanks to Adrien.‘The two of you really do work well together.’

‘We’re supposed to.’Adrien looked at Marinette fondly her cheeks flushing pink as she realised they were still holding hands.

Marinette swallowed before finding some of her confidence.‘And we always have.Race you to Sacré-Couer!Spots on!’

Adrien could only watch on as her giggle echoed around him in the close quarters of the alleyway, leaving him to release a satisfied sigh.‘I told you I loved her, both in and outside the mask.’

‘Yeah, yeah, kid.’Plagg rolled his eyes.‘Whatever.We’re losing the race here.’

Minutes later the figures of Paris’ two most famous heroes were running across the afternoon rooftops, their laughter loud across the city, as a purple butterfly made its way towards Collège Françoise Dupont…

**Author's Note:**

> Again, please go see @geekgirles on tumblr, show some love!


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